Houses Pop Up On Roof Of Chinese Shopping Mall

The Chinese are known for their sometimes unusual inventions, in for example food. Little did I know that even in real estate, Chinese solutions seem to surprise. In the city of Zhuzhou a real estate developer decided to build four large, single homes on the roof of a several stories high mall.

This idea might seem odd at first sight but it provides a solution to many problems the rapidly urbanizing cities and towns of China have to cope with these days. Using commercial roofspace for residential purposes will allow people to have a garden with a nice view and a single house in the centre of the city. But you have to admit, it’s still a weird idea to live with your family on top of a mall.

Despite the good intentions with this plan, the houses are still vacant. The Chinese version of the zoning permit doesn’t allow any residential activities in (or on top of) the mall. The real estate developer said that he will now use the buildings as offices for his 160 employees.

During a lecture we did at Moscow’s Strelka Institute two weeks ago, I got to speak with landscape architect Adriaan Geuze who leads the world-famous Dutch landscape design office West 8. Offscreen he showed some of his latest park designs. We would like to highlight one of the amazing parks that West 8 has created and…

Some people consider city birds disastrous when it comes to their homes. The birds are especially unwanted when they accommodate at attics, making holes into wall insulation, and under roof tiles. We could install some traditional wooden bird houses in our garden, on trees or social housing for birds at other places in the city. Recently we stumbled upon even more esthetical, yet subtle solutions: bird house roof tiles. These tiles consist of terracotta with a bird house perched on top where the bird can nest in.

Hangzhou is a core city on the Yangtze River Delta renown for its local natural beauty. The city also plays an important economic role being positioned on the southern end of China’s Grand Canal, which spans over 1,700 km to Beijing in the north. This canal has been significant to the region’s economic development for over a millennium. Spatially, the canal is Hangzhou’s primary defining feature.